The Bixby family is an American family that was heavily involved in the development of California ranches and real estate in the 19th and 20th centuries. Through various companies, they controlled at one time or another large swathes of California real estate, much of it derived from Mexican land grants. Over several generations, their holdings included Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos, and parts of Rancho San Justo and Rancho Palos Verdes, totaling well over 100,000 acres. Parts of the towns of Long Beach, Bellflower, Paramount, Signal Hill, Lakewood, and Los Alamitos emerged from former Bixby-held lands. Within Long Beach, the neighborhoods Bixby Hill, Bixby Knolls, and Bixby Village [1] are named after the family, as well as Bixby Park [2] in the Alamitos Beach neighborhood.
The key members of the family connected to California real estate are the brothers Llewellyn and Jotham Bixby, their first cousins Thomas and Benjamin Flint, and a cousin of the next generation, John William Bixby. Llewellyn's daughter Sarah Bixby Smith wrote a well-known memoir of growing up on the Bixby family ranches in the late 19th century; her second husband, Paul Jordan-Smith, was also a writer. Jotham's daughter Fanny Bixby Spencer was a philanthropist and anti-war activist who was also one of the nation's earliest policewomen.
Jotham and Margaret Bixby founded the First Congregational Church in 1888 and later contributed to the construction of the 1914 building. [3]
(1) Joseph Bixby (1620-1701) born in Suffolk, England, emigrated to Boxford, Mass. before 1638; m. Sarah Herde [9 children]
(13) Benjamin Bixby (1650-1727) born in Ipswitch, Mass.; m. Mary -- [3 children]; m. Mary -- [8 children]
(134) Samuel Bixby (1689-1741) born in Topsfield, Mass.; m. Martha Underwood [8 children]
(1343) Samuel Bixby (1721-1809) born in Sutton, Mass.; m. Lydia Bond [11 children]
(13436) Solomon Bixby (1761-1835) born in Sutton, Mass.; m. Lucy Taylor [12 children]
(134363) Amasa Bixby (1794-1872) born in Norridgewock, Maine; m. Fanny Weston (1794?-1869); [13 children]
(134368) Simon Bixby (1803-1862) born in Norridgewock, Maine; m. Deborah Norton Flint (1806-76) [10 children]
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the 43rd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California, the second most populous city in Los Angeles County, and the largest city in California that is not a county seat.
Los Alamitos is a city in Orange County, California. The city was incorporated in March 1960. The population was 11,780 at the 2020 census, up from 11,449 at the 2010 census. The adjacent unincorporated community of Rossmoor uses the same 90720 ZIP code in its mailing address, but is not part of the city. The Los Alamitos Race Course is named for the city, but lies in the neighboring city of Cypress.
Bixby may refer to:
Bixby Knolls is a neighborhood in Long Beach, California, named after the Bixby family.
Puvunga is an ancient village and sacred site of the Tongva nation, the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin, and the Acjachemen, the Indigenous people of Orange County. The site is now located within the California State University, Long Beach campus and surrounding areas. The Tongva know Puvunga as the "place of emergence" and it is where they believe "their world and their lives began". Puvunga is an important ceremonial site and is the terminus of an annual pilgrimage for the Tongva, Acjachemen, and Chumash.
Wardlow station is an at-grade light rail station on the A Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail system. The station is located on the A Line's exclusive right-of-way that parallels Pacific Place, at its intersection with Wardlow Street, after which the station is named, in the Wrigley neighborhood of Long Beach, California.
Lakewood Village, or simply known as The Village, is a neighborhood in the northeast portion of the city of Long Beach, California. It is bordered on the west, north and east sides by the City of Lakewood. It is located south of Del Amo Boulevard, north of Carson Street, east of Lakewood Boulevard and west of Bellflower Boulevard.
Rancho de los Palos Verdes was a 31,629-acre (128.00 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Los Angeles County, California given in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico to José Loreto and Juan Capistrano Sepulveda. The name means "ranch of the green trees". The grant encompassed the present-day cities of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, as well as portions of San Pedro and Torrance.
California Heights is a historic neighborhood of Long Beach, California.
The Long Beach Police Department provides law enforcement for the city of Long Beach, California.
Rancho Los Alamitos takes its name from an 1834 Mexican partition of the 1784 Rancho Los Nietos, a Spanish concession, covering an area in present-day California's southwestern Los Angeles County and northwestern Orange County. Los Alamitos means the Little Cottonwoods or Poplars in Spanish, after the native Fremont Cottonwood trees there.
Los Cerritos Ranch House, also known as Rancho Los Cerritos or Casa de los Cerritos, in Long Beach, California, was "the largest and most impressive adobe residence erected in southern California during the Mexican period". Los Cerritos means "the little hills" in English. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. It is currently a museum.
Los Cerritos is a neighborhood with approximately 700 homes and 2,000 residents located within the Bixby Knolls neighborhood of Long Beach, California. Established in 1906, the Los Cerritos neighborhood has been used by the film industry of Hollywood with its historic, estate-sized homes. It was one of three finalists in the 2007 Neighborhood of the Year national competition.
Abel Stearns was an American trader who came to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, Alta California in 1829 and became a major landowner and cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens.
Rancho Los Cerritos was a 27,054-acre (109.48 km2) 1834 land grant in present-day southern Los Angeles County and Orange County, California The grant was the result of a partition of the Rancho Los Nietos grant. "Cerritos" means "little hills" in Spanish. The rancho lands include the present-day cities of Cerritos, Paramount, Bellflower and Long Beach.
Sarah Bixby Smith (1871–1935) was a California writer and an advocate of women's education. Adobe Days, her memoir of growing up in southern California, is considered a classic of the genre.
The Bixby land companies were a group of California-based land companies founded by various members of the Bixby and Flint families from Maine. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the firms of Flint, Bixby & Company, J. Bixby & Company, J. W. Bixby & Company, the Alamitos Land Company, and the Bixby Land Company controlled large swathes of California real estate, much of it derived from Mexican land grants. At various times their holdings included Rancho Los Cerritos, Rancho Los Alamitos, half of Rancho San Justo, and part of Rancho Palos Verdes together with other property in San Benito, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles counties. Parts of the towns of Long Beach, Bellflower, Paramount, Signal Hill, Lakewood, and Los Alamitos emerged from former Bixby-held lands.
Fanny Weston Bixby Spencer, also referred to as Fanny Bixby was an American philanthropist and antiwar writer. She joined the fledgling Long Beach police force in January 1908, making her one of the country's earliest policewomen.
Willmore is a neighborhood in Long Beach, California. It is adjacent to Downtown Long Beach.
Susanna Bixby Bryant was an American horticulturalist, rancher, botanical collector and the founder of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, California, the largest botanic garden in the state that housed the California native plants.